and Templeton received orders to join his regiment. He had long since intended to sell his commission, but, from time to time, had delayed doing so, and now, alas! it was too late. With many a bitter pang, he tore himself from his wife and child, promising to write frequently, and endeavouring to console Henrietta by expressing his belief that the war would not last long, and that then he should return never again to leave her. He was gone; and, for awhile, Henrietta felt his absence severely, but her friends were unremitting in their attentions, and the gay round of pleasure into which she was now led afforded but little time for painful recollections. At home, the mornings were generally spent in paying or receiving visits, and dinner parties, routs, balls, concerts, and the opera, beguiled the remaining hours. This may seem a strange mode of life for one who was a mother, but the picture is nevertheless perfectly true, and, we regret to say, is merely an every-day scene in the lives of our aristocracy. The attention to domestic duties is unfashionable in the extreme, and vice has become as common among the inhabitants of St. James's, as St. Giles's, with only this difference, that among the former, it is disguised in splendour and elegance, whilst among the latter, it stands forth in the loathsome attire, which properly belongs to it but to our tale.

Among the male friends of Henrietta, there was not one who possessed more completely the entree to her society than Lieutenant Danvers. He was at all her parties, accompanied her to the opera, was sure to be seen at every route or ball she went to, and found ready admittance to her house at all hours. Scandal was busy in sullying her reputation, but she knew it not until, accidentally glancing over one of the daily journals, she found her conduct pourtrayed in such colours as gave it the appearance of decided criminality, and then it was that, for the first time, she owned to herself a passion for the heartless and wily Danvers. Ever since her husband's absence, he had exerted every art to win her affections and effect her ruin, and now, as a last resource, he had with fiend-like artifice, penned the paragraph in question, and obtained its insertion in one of the most fashionable papers of the day. Possessing a sound knowledge of human nature, he well knew that to make his victim feel herself thoroughly degraded was, after gaining her affections, the last step towards completing her destruction. He succeeded; and to give some idea of his cool, heartless baseness, be it known that since Templeton's absence, he had maintained a correspondence with him, reminding him of the

happy days and hours they had spent together, and expressing the greatest desire for his speedy return to England; an event which was much nearer at hand than could reasonably be expected. One morning, he entered Mrs. Templeton's drawing room and found her reclining on the sofa; an opened letter lay at her feet; her face was buried in the cushion, and she was sobbing heavily. A glance at the handwriting told him that it was that of her husband-his friend whom he had basely robbed of every earthly treasure. Henrietta raised her head-and beheld her destroyer standing before her coolly reading the letter: he hurried towards her, but she shrunk from him with a shriek of terror, and fell senseless on the couch.

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The letter contained fearful tidings-a treaty of peace would speedily be concluded between the hostile powers, and soon, very soon," continued Templeton, "I shall return to my happy home, and pass a long and blissful life with my own adored Henrietta." Alas! how little did he suspect that the bliss he anticipated had been nipt in its bud; that the sunshine of his days would now be changed to utter darkness, and that his only companions, during the short span of existence which was allotted him, would be sorrow and despair.

-S

Peace was speedily concluded, and scarcely had it been officially announced, ere Templeton again set foot upon his native land. At Dover, while waiting for post horses, a newspaper was handed to him, and, glancing over its contents, he read the following announcement. "Considerable sensation has been excited in high life by an elopement, which took place yesterday morning. The parties concerned, are a Lieutenant Dand the beautiful wife of Captain T- -n, who is now abroad. We understand the gallant Lieutenant is, as usual in these cases, the bosom friend of the lady's husband. It seems that, just before the present war broke out, the Lieutenant sold his commission in the army, and gave up fighting the battles of Mars in order to enlist under the banner of Cupid. Report speaks highly of the conquests he has gained." The paper fell from his hand. Could it be possible! Was it she?-the being on whom he so fondly doated, and whom he believed to possess almost an angel's purity. Impossible;-but then the description of her seducer-the bosom friend; yet, till now, Templeton had never heard of the immoralities here imputed. That im-' putation he knew was false, but yet the whole of the account, unless altogether a base fabrication, was sufficient to cause the most agonizing fears. The carriage was in readiness; Templeton hurried hastily into it, and promising the postillions a hand

some douceur, bade them spur their horses to the utmost speed. In spite of what to him seemed long delay at every stage, he arrived in London that night and found himself at the door of his deserted dwelling; now, alas! his home no more. All was dark within-he knocked violently, and presently the door was opened by an elderly female. A few words sufficed to answer his enquiry-the elopement had taken place. He drove off instantly to the house of Sir Thomas Harcourt; the family were on the continent and had been there for some months. He hastened to the hotel which Danvers was in the habit of visiting, and here the information he had received at his own house was fully confirmed, but no clue could be given to the route the fugitives had taken. Just as he was quitting the hotel, a friend accosted him from whom he learnt that it was believed the parties had taken the road to Dover. He instantly determined to continue the pursuit without an hour's delay, and his friend perceiving that he was bent on punishing the betrayer, agreed to accompany him. Very early the following morning, they arrived at Dover, but no such person as they sought for had been seen in the town. At last, one of the post-boys at the inn informed them that, two days previously, he had driven a lady and gentleman with a little girl, in a carriage to Deal, and from the description, Templeton had no doubt of the identity of the parties. The pursuers now hastened on to Deal; the fugitives had taken shipping for France. To France they followed, and received such intelligence at Boulogne as led them to believe that the guilty pair were stopping in the town. Templeton remained at the inn while his friend went out to make enquiries. After an absence of several hours, he at length returned. He had met Henrietta and her seducer, and had tracked them to their retreat. Templeton immediately dispatched a challenge to Danvers-it was accepted, and on reference to Danvers's friend, the meeting was appointed to take place on the following morning. Both parties, as may be conceived from the nature of their profession, knew well how to use a pistol with effect, and it was most likely that the affair would terminate in the death of one of them. Indeed, Templeton told his friend that he did not intend to spare his man, and that should either his first or second fire not take effect, he should insist upon a third, as, by the laws of duelling in such a case as the present, he was fully entitled to do. The appointed hour came, Templeton and his second were on the ground before their time, but it was not long ere Danvers and his friend made their appearance. The necessary preliminaries were immediately gone through, and the duellists took

their distance. Templeton had a white handkerchief tucked in the breast of his coat, one end of which hung out and afforded an excellent mark for his antagonist. His second, just before the signal was given, suddenly perceived this, and requested him to tuck the handkerchief in, but he obstinately refused to do so. The word was given-they fired; but without effect. In fact, Danvers thinking that his antagonist would be satisfied with one fire had discharged his pistol in the air. Again they fired, and again without effect. A third fire was demanded by Templeton, and considerable dispute arose between the seconds as to Templeton's right to demand it, in the midst of which Danvers himself interfered, and expressed his readiness to concede the point. This settled the matter and the pistols were again loaded and handed to the antagonists. Danvers was now determined not to fire without effect. He was perfectly composed, and could almost make sure of killing his man if he chose to do so, but Templeton on the contrary was much agitated, and his hand exceedingly unsteady; in fact he was eager for revenge and literally trembled under the excitement of the moment. For the last time the word was given-Templeton's ball flew hissing over Danvers's shoulder and he again remained unhurt, while the former received his antagonist's fire in the breast (the handkerchief had been the mark aimed at) and with a convulsive bound from the earth, he fell dead at the feet of his second.

In the attic of a wretched hovel, situate in the purlieus of Paris, was seated a young female whose dress bespoke the most abject poverty. Her looks were wild, her hair dishevelled, and a single glance told that her mental faculties were deranged. On the bed, by her side, was an open coffin in which lay a beautiful child, a girl about five years of age. The bloom had not yet faded from her cheeks, and there was an expression of easy repose about the form and features, which at first might have been mistaken for the effect of sleep-the deep and happy sleep of childhood-but alas! it was the still deeper sleep of death. The mother's gaze was fixed intently on the child; a rose was in her hand; and she sat plucking the leaves and strewing them upon the corpse, while tears streamed rapidly down her pale and sunken cheeks. At her feet knelt a boy about a year younger than the girl, whose fine open countenance was turned towards the woman, and shewed, by its strong expression of earnest entreaty, that he was endeavouring to arouse her from her present melancholy abstraction.

The wretched female was once the virtuous, loving, and be

loved Henrietta Templeton; now the abandoned mistress of her husband's murderer, the elegant and fashionable Danvers, who, after living with her for several years, had at last become tired of her attractions, and left her and her two children to starve upon a miserable pittance, the wreck of her property, which he had squandered in gaming and debauchery. The child in its coffin by her side was her first-born-the only memorial of those days of happy innocence which so soon had fled for ever-and this was the day appointed for its burial. Presently a gentle tap was given at the door of the apartment, but the victim of crime heard it not. Again, still louder; but still it was unanswered. The door was opened, and the ministers of the dead stood before her.

Mother," cried the boy, hiding his face in her lap, "they have come." She turned her head round wildly, and with a shriek of agony and despair, fell senseless on the coffin. The men removed her, and while some females residing in the house were busily endeavouring to revive her, the coffin was fastened down, and its trappings placed over it. After some time spent in administering restoratives, the wretched creature shewed signs of returning life, and became conscious of the sad task she had to perform. One of the men put the coffin on his shoulder, and she rose almost eagerly to follow it; the boy held his mother's hand, and thus they followed their conductors to the burial ground. She stood before the grave, her features fixed, and pale as marble, but when the body was being committed to the earth, she suddenly pressed her hands together, and falling on her knees before the grave, a faint murmur was heard to issue from her lips. The sound ceased; her hands fell-she was raised from off the ground, and staggered forward to embrace the boy, but, as if some horrid thought had seized her, suddenly shrunk back, and, with a fearful convulsion of countenance sank lifeless into the arms of those around her. Thus died Henrietta Templeton. May the history of her short but sad career prove a warning to all who wish to avoid both ignominy, misery and untimely death. Let the woman who once enters the broad and open road of vice escape them if she can-her utmost efforts will be useless.

A few days after Henrietta's death, she was buried in the same grave with that sweet child whose body she had so recently strewed with rose-leaves. The boy alone was now left; and as he stood, chief mourner over the double grave, so handsome, young, and helpless, the tears of the spectators fell in sympathy with his own. The house of a poor old woman named Borneau,